Saturday, 2 May 2009

The other night, I took Tatiana to Dragonfly, the new Japanese restaurant in Exeter. I used the opportunity to strike up a conversation with some new people. Or I attempted to anyway. This guy completely ignored me.

Joseph joined us for some tea. We all had a nice conversation so I thought everything was going well.

Things at home were still the same. Good, but the same. I'm just thankful Mum and Dad don't use family meal times to nag me about "settling down". I think Mum got enough of that from Nonna so she's avoided that with me.

Tatiana is still doing well socially. I do worry about her sometimes because she's very shy but she seems to do okay. She and Abigail are very close in age, so we've been seeing a lot of her recently.

Someone else I've been seeing a lot of is Liam. I dated him for a little while after Tatiana was born and we've recently rekindled our relationship. It was never anything serious but this time, I think may be falling in love with him!

After dating for not all that much longer, I decided to pop the question. I never pictured myself getting married to anyone but I think Liam might be the one for me.

Thankfully, he felt the same way.

My parents, perhaps understandably, were a little worried. They didn't know Liam very well at all and were concerned that I didn't either. They did come around. Eventually.

Amongst all the happiness of wedding planning, our little dog TJ went up to Doggy Heaven. He was very old but we still weren't quite expecting it. The house was pretty empty without him, so we filled it with two much bigger dogs, Labyrinth and Mac!

That cloud of dust in the background is Mac, destroying some secateurs in the greenhouse. But the more important thing is US! Liam showed up to the wedding with red hair. I wonder if he knew I'd always had a thing for redheads. Now I can have one of my very own.

Now I'm Arianna Weaver. I wasn't going to take Liam's surname at first and we discussed him taking mine. But I just really like his surname and that was the deciding factor.

It was great catching up with all my family. I don't get to see Caterina as often since she moved to Exeter after college. I was so excited she was able to come and meet Liam.

Tatiana had fun too, as there were a lot of kids there for her to play with. Zaria had come home with her from school and we let her stay for the wedding. Max and Kirstin came with their parents. They all sat together at the back during the ceremony - it was very cute.

We had a lovely cake, which Liam shoved into my mouth right after we cut it.

I got it all cleaned off my face in time to go inside and enjoy a slice with some of our guests. All in all, the whole thing went as planned and I'm glad we did it!

Tatiana has grown up so much and has already started high school. She was nervous but she knew some of the kids already and most of the new ones were nice enough, so that helped.

Most of the kids. Tatiana told me that Amber has a real attitude problem. Mum told me that she's had to have Amber in her office several times.

Tatiana's developed a big crush on Jonas, her friend Abigail's older brother. He seems to like her too. I'm not worried because Mum's keeping an eye on them at school.

Mum has finally been able to use the newly opened art room for lessons. She's let their kids choose their own projects to work on and most have chosen painting.

A couple are doing sewing.

My girl had to be different though and she's doing flower arranging. I hope she brings some home for me. Mother's Day is coming up!

That horrible Amber girl sat down with Tatiana, Jonas and Anna in the cafeteria and the other kids apparently all got up and left the table. Amber's not very well liked.

They all headed outside instead...

...where Amber followed and continued her nastiness.

Tatiana saw it as a good opportunity to get closer to Jonas.

And poor Mum had to talk to Amber again.

While Amber was getting lectured, Jonas and Tatiana snuck away for a while.

Back at home, Liam and I have been trying to have a baby without much success. I hope we won't have to resort to fertility treatments. They're so expensive, and I'm not sure we can afford it just now.

In the middle of the night, Dad passed away, aged 77. I'm glad he held on long enough to see me get married.

Poor Mum is distraught.

I'm just glad I have Liam to help me through it.

Tatiana has been coping with her grandfather's death by focusing on other things, like the car's she's restoring (which she can't even drive yet)...

...and video games with Jonas...

...and Jonas himself.

I don't mind her and Jonas hanging around outside in the backyard but I wish she'd have the sense to come in when it gets too hot.

She actually passed out from heatstroke the other day. I think her pride was hurt more than anything else though, fortunately!

Random pic:WTF Maxis?!?! This is apparently what brick layers wear to work. Teen females, anyway. I don't think the straw hat will offer much protection against falling debris, somehow.

Notes:

I thought there was something seriously wrong with this house for a while because I was unable to have Arianna and Liam try for a baby. It wasn't until I tried to have them adopt that I realised what the problem was. I'd completely forgotten the dog was pregnant. However many puppies she's carrying, it was going to push me over the Sim limit. Once Jonah died, they were able to try.

Liam and Arianna are solid 2-bolters, so the red hair was not really for chemistry purposes. It was more so I (and you!) don't get him mixed up with Lake. I used to get Floyd and Stan mixed up all the time in early days. Floyd soon made it impossible for me to mix him up with anyone with his general jerkishness though! It just so happens that Arianna really does like red hair though.

Yeah, I thought the red hair would be necessary! I used to see him walking by in his stupid soccer uniform (I changed it before they got married because I couldn't bear looking at it) and go "hey, when did I delete Lake's clothes?"

I'm glad you enjoyed looking at the school, SimState. It's working out great. Inge's school stuff makes it an absolute breeze to run. I'm super happy with the layout too, which is an achievement in itself, because interior layouts are really a weak point in my building.

Lunar, I didn't think I'd like Tatiana so much but I can't predict that accurately until they become teens. And yes, she turned 15 on Day 80, so college is next round for her (assuming she gets in)!

They did walk out on Amber but I doubt it was because of anything other than they'd finished their lunches and she hadn't. Sadly. I really do wish Sims would react like that. It'd be funny if they picked up their plates and moved to another table.

I did design the school myself (the primary school too, which you should see an update on soon). I'm not completely thrilled with the design but it's functional and I couldn't have found exactly what I wanted in a downloaded school. Those are pretty much the only circumstances when I'll build my own community lot!

Yay! I have about 9 rounds to go? I think that's right. I had a random question lol. In the 10th pic, where Arianna is eating with her parents, what food is that in the basket? I haven't seen it before and I don't remember seeing it at MTS (unless it was in a one of those huge food packs that I haven't downloaded). I've been looking for good quality food as of late and have raided TSR and MTS already.

And it's good to see Arianna found her own man. Though her and Galen's daughter is beautiful.

A day off is always good for catching up on blogs, I find! I got a lot more verbose from around this round onwards, so they're much longer entries. You could probably read the first 8 rounds in a few hours, if you were so inclined!

Collette's an equal opportunity bitch but she's a lot of fun too. It took me forever to figure out why she kept trying to hug everyone all the time but it turned out I had some weird hack problem that affected only this house and one of my dorms. It's all fixed now, thank goodness. It made the households kind of boring because all they would do, if you left them alone, was hug.

And yup, post away! I can't help you, so you might as well see if somebody else can. :)